Well that didn't work

Sometimes, ideas just don't work out.

This is supposed to be a red panda

I tried a few variations because I couldn't quite figure out what to do with her legs. Red Pandas have these strange all-black legs and feet, that make for awkward separations between the torso and the limbs, when drawing anthropomorphic characters. Plus here it just makes her look like she's wearing black leggings.

I never did like using the classic "monkey fur" separation approach, because it can come off looking like sleeves or pants and it tends to look raggedy against my otherwise very clean and smooth style of drawing.

I could bite the bullet and just make her legs red, the kind of shorthand simplification that often works with anthro characters. (Mice don't actually have fury feet, for instance, but it works in anthro form.)

But if I do that, now she just looks like a red-colored raccoon. Not that I haven't done exactly that, before, as illustrated when I colored a friend's drawing a few months back, but as that very image can demonstrate, perhaps my mistake was in putting clothes on her, or at least putting too much clothing on her, such that it covered up certain important markings, like that black belly fur, that can be important in discerning the difference. And, mind you, the image below wasn't even meant to be a red panda. She was originally drawn to be a Lemur.

I even tried a smooth gradient in lieu of the shabby cut, but I still don't know that I'm happy with it.

I think I shall reattempt this project, alter the costume design, maybe try a different animal, see what I can come up with.

In the meantime, what do you think? Which do you like best?

Stay TOONED!

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6AoppfOzvB/